Brett Ratner’s ‘Melania’ movie has an emotional disconnect – Review

New documentary offers a flattering view of Melania Trump without shedding any light on who the first lady is.

• “Melania,” an unprecedented new documentary about first lady Melania Trump, is in theaters now.
• Director Brett Ratner returns from Hollywood exile to helm the film.
• The movie covers the 20 days leading up to President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration.

When is a documentary not a documentary? When the subject is Melania Trump.

That’s not quite a riddle, but the first lady is quite the enigma in “Melania” (★½ out of four; rated PG; in theaters now and streaming later this year on Prime Video), director Brett Ratner’s less-than-revelatory look at the life of the former fashion model and wife of President Donald Trump. The film, which follows the 20 days leading up to the 2025 presidential inauguration, is part reality show and part White House historical video, as Melania Trump narrates a behind-the-scenes glance at her personal and private lives.

“Melania” doesn’t quite work as a documentary, though that doesn’t matter: People who don’t like the Trumps won’t go near the theater, and those who love the Trumps probably will. Just don’t expect much insight either way: While it does offer an extremely flattering view of all things Melania, outside of a few candid glimpses, you’re not really going to learn a lot about who she really is.

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The film begins with the first lady in her element: in heels and on the move. With the Rolling Stones playing in the background, Trump jets from Mar-a-Lago in Florida to Trump Tower in Manhattan, ready to navigate the “complexities of my life” leading up to her return to Washington.

She meets with her longtime stylist about her inauguration coat and an interior designer about redecorating the White House. Over the next three weeks, she also attends the funeral of President Jimmy Carter; meets with French first lady Brigitte Macron and Queen Rania of Jordan about her “Be Best” campaign; and finally partakes in inaugural parties and balls on what her husband calls the “big day.”

“Melania” marks Ratner’s first feature film since 2014, following a period of Hollywood exile after sexual harassment allegations. No criminal charges were filed and Ratner denied the allegations.

Throughout the movie, Ratner peppers in bits and pieces of Melania Trump’s personality: In one scene, she sings along to her favorite Michael Jackson song, “Billie Jean,” and is also caught doing the “Y.M.C.A.” dance after an inaugural ball. The camera even captures a few interesting moments that aren’t really the focus along the way, like a worried tailor skeptical of a change Trump wants in her inauguration outfit and then-Vice President Kamala Harris looking at her watch backstage with seeming annoyance during the swearing-in ceremony.

But overall those moments showing real personality – especially in regard to the title subject – are few and far between. There’s a long sequence where Trump memorializes her mother Amalija Knavs, as the first anniversary of her death coincides with Carter’s funeral. However, instead of old pictures being shown of Melania and her mom, or a close-up interview with the first lady, the first lady speaks over footage of herself visiting St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In that moment, and others, she talks about being emotional but doesn’t immerse the audience in what she’s feeling. In one case, Melania is seen watching cable news footage of California’s deadly 2025 wildfires and the camera zooms in for tears that never come.

Because she doesn’t address the camera, “Melania” suffers from a brutal disconnect. Trump speaks about son Barron, but he doesn’t speak about his mom. (Barron, by the way, is low-key the most compelling person in the entire movie because you’re dying to know what this teenager thinks about these events he’s going through.) She talks about a reverence for the military, but Ratner doesn’t show her conversations with soldiers. It’s a strange filmmaking choice for a documentary, though maybe one that’s by design: Melania Trump produced the movie through her new Muse Films company and this is definitely her show.

Everything surrounding “Melania” is political but the movie itself isn’t, for the most part. The president pops up sporadically: His first appearance is as a bobblehead in Melania Trump’s pilot’s cockpit, with “Terminator”-style sunglasses and machine gun. He grumbles about why the national college football championship is the same day as the inauguration (“I think they did that on purpose”), but he’s mainly there to say how great and influential his wife is.

The film ends with the first lady having her official black-and-white photograph taken, and this cinematic portrait, which could have shown insight into a rather unknown public figure, isn’t much more colorful.